There are eight Houses at Bishops, three boarding and five day boy.

A House Director is in charge of each of the Houses and a grade 11 boy in the House is appointed each year in September to become the Head of House to lead up the team in that House for the next twelve months.

The day houses each have two Assistant House Directors and the boarding houses have one Assistant House Director to help with the administration and care for the boys. The tutors handle routine matters in a boy’s life, while more significant issues are dealt with at the House Director or Assistant level. Positive peer support is fostered through the Peer Counsellor Scheme. Peer counsellor training run through the Bishops Support Unit (BSU), helps boys within each House develop conflict resolution and peer mediation skills and is a further avenue of pastoral support for the boys within each House.

The boarding houses all have resident Housemothers, whose primary role is one of a maternal pastoral care for the boys in that House and the general housekeeping of that House. She is a vital contact for all parents of boarders, especially those long-distance boarder parents. The resident Sanatorium sister is available on campus to help boys with any medical problem. The school doctor visits the school sanatorium each morning and can refer boys for further medical treatment if necessary.

Families are encouraged to be an integral part of the School and House community. They are encouraged to get to know their son’s House Director and Tutor. All houses have Parent Committees that support the work within those houses and provide a necessary communication link between the school and the parent body. As all successful partnerships are based on effective communication it is essential that home and school keep in close touch, and that the pastoral structures facilitate such communication.

As you can see, life at Bishops revolves around the House, with daily notices published here, weekly assemblies taking place here, roll calls, projects and inter-house events all arranged through the Houses. Each House has showers, toilets and changing facilities, a reading room, a recreational room, a matric room and the House Director’s and assistant House Directors’ studies. Boys do visit each other’s Houses but most often they can be found in their own Houses, which become as familiar and comfortable to them as their own homes.